It is becoming more common every year for employers to let their staff work from home on occasion, and there are others who work entirely from home as freelancers or those running their own business.
While working from home presents a number of obvious advantages, it is not a suitable solution for everyone, at least not without acquiring a certain degree of self-discipline.
For one thing, there are often more distractions, and without the formality of having a clearly defined workplace as is the case with the average office job, it can be particularly easy to procrastinate.
If you are finding yourself too easily distracted while working from home, consider the following tips for getting into a more productive routine.
1 – Get into a Routine
Many who work from home will tell you that by far the greatest advantage is having more freedom to work how you want and when you want. However, if you cannot discipline yourself to treat it as any other job, then you are not likely to end up being very productive.
Establishing a routine and sticking to it is essential if you want to make a proper go of it without becoming victim to the common pitfall of procrastination. Determine your work goals (rather than financial ones) and put aside the minimum required amount of time to get them done by their deadlines.
Plan out your breaks, and stick to the timetable. Once you have established a routine, you will have made the first major step in stamping out the distractions and making your working day more productive.
2 – Define Your Workspace
When working at home, it might be tempting to lie down in bed or slouch on the sofa with your laptop on occasion. However, for most of us, such a setting is hardly very conducive to getting work done.
If you work at home on a regular basis, and particularly if you are a freelancer, you should have a clearly defined workspace in the form of a home office.
Ideally, you should have an entire room or relatively secluded area of your home entirely dedicated to work.
In order to make this place better suited to working, you can get rid of many of the common distractions in order to make it more work-focussed. Taking some time to create the perfect workspace which is both organized and pleasant to work in might make it feel less like actually working at home, but many people will find it more conducive to productivity.
3 – Set Aside a Time for Chores, Pets and Children etc.
You should think about this when formulating your daily timetable. When working in the comfort of your own house, among the most common distractions are chores, pets and children.
We all have daily chores to keep on top of at home, and while these should not be neglected, they should be reserved for a certain time of the day.
You might find it better to spend half an hour, or however long it takes, getting these done before you actually start work. At least this way, they will not come back to distract you later on in the day when you are trying to work.
If you have children, you will have to organize your timetable around them, so that you can work while they are at school. If you have particularly demanding pets, you might want to have someone else tend to them while you’re working.
4 – Minimize Online Distractions
Working from home is largely very Internet-orientated these days. However, the Internet itself can be a major distraction.
Unless you’re a freelancer, your employer might even be using special software to monitor your activities while you are using the laptop from work.
Regardless of this, however, minimizing online distractions is absolutely essential if you want to succeed in staying out of the office.
The first thing to do is to close down Facebook and any other instant messaging or social networking services. If you are chatting to friends while you’re supposed to be working, your productivity levels will plummet, and it will take much longer to get anything done. You may also want to consider getting a separate email address for work purposes, so that you aren’t distracted by personal emails during work home.
If you have any other distractions we didn’t mention, feel free to add them in the comments to share with other users.